Katy Perry As Kanye West’s E.T. And The New Love Fashion

Where did this came from? Outer space! Joking! No, I’ll tell you: one beautiful morning, I was checking my Inbox and found a precious goodie from Cute Circuit. You may remember talking about their LED dresses before (and even about Katy Perry’s Met Ball dress). This time, they were announcing a collaboration (again) with Katy Perry who has vowed the audience and critics alike with an amazing performance held during the American Idol show.

There’s nothing here that would beat your usual favorite gossip news outlet. However, things began to radically change when I pressed play and actually watched the performance (which you can watch too, below). What do people expect nowadays from a music entertainer? (click through, let’s break this! You’ll find lots of images and another video right after the jump!)

The said American Idol performance in itself starts with Kanye West, the ever so controversial Kanye who’s not afraid of people tearing him apart and looking at him as he would be from another planet. No, he’s not afraid of all that and more. Because it all translates in sales figures. Kanye gets extra publicity with every insane comment he makes, with every non invited appearance at a fashion show (yeah, he does that a lot!). With every new model girlfriend she presents to the world (he is currently dating the unearthly gorgeous Selita Ebanks).

Moving on, the ear (and the eye) meet Katy Perry, one of the world’s most beloved pop darlings who’s experimenting with a land owned and mastered by Lady Gaga more than anyone. The theatricals and scenic extravagance while performing a pop moment now are the very trademark of Lady Gaga. Our new Lady of Pop. Who’s owning the stage and the little monsters… ahem fans. And this was why I started all this in the first place: Katy Perry’s stage costume was designed and enhanced with Cute Circuit features. LEDs baby, LEDs! Flashing, blinking, colorful LEDs! Your regular Christmas tree walking and dancing around the stage. And singing atop of all that!

I saw that and I wondered: if people were blown away by this, how does the video look like? And, naturally, I went on and looked for the actual official video of the Katy Perry – E.T. ft Kanye West. Let’s watch it together again and discuss it after:

The apocalyptic vision of a planet covered with detritus and mechanical waste is so common that I’m beginning to believe that this is going to happen, really, in the (not so distant) future. Kanye begins to praise himself and his abilities. He’s, like always, so full of himself it’s not even worth discussing. Kanye Is. Above you, me, above all. In fact, when the Univers was created, Kanye was already there. That’s how big he is.

As for Katy Perry… Well she’s there alright! And she’s introduced to us as an alien (or what the common acception of an alien looks like). The vision appearing at 1.03 along in the video may strike you as a very familiar sight. At least for a good part of us, that particular image is almost sacred and was first presented to the world by the one and only Alexander McQueen in one of his amazing fashion shows. Yes, my daaahlings, that is the Kate Moss hologram (which you can fully admire here). Oh, Kanye, your vision is so… umm… how do I put this… Inspired? So inspired (by someone else) that it hurts!

Oh well. Moving on. Katy Perry goes through a vast wardrobe transition, much like Britney Spears in one of her past videos: she’s wearing red, then virginal / bridal white and upon her descent on Mountain Detritus, she’s some kind of (glam)amazon deer. Not only she came from nowhere at a robot’s call, but she also changed her dresses several times, couldn’t decide what to wear for the big date with the Tin man. Now let’s all take a step back and think for a second: we were all brought up with those classic fairy tales in mind: the Princess all happy and alone in her tower / house / forest waiting for her Prince to come / wake her up / liberate her. Metaphorically, we all came to understand, years later, what all that meant (the young woman waiting for the awakening of the woman in her and so forth). We even understood the Frog / Pig Prince symbol, which, for some of us, could’ve been harder to stomach at a young age and even further along the years road.

Well, my daahlings, there’s no need to think about kissing frogs and pigs now! Thanks to Kanye’s visionary genius here, the post modernist fairy tale involves a tin robot and kissing it to unleash the Prince trapped within! For it will become common knowledge if it’s not already, every robot has a Prince locked / hidden inside! I’m most puzzled by the inserted images, flashing before our eyes, and, most of all, before our children’s eyes (the sequences you see flashing between the main scenes of the video). Looking at her precious tin man (and then at the newly released / spawned male), Katy Perry, our McQueen-esque alien only thinks about mating animals and babies. Yep, because that’s what Princesses do whenever they look at their Princes! Don’t they?

(during this period, Kanye comes preaching like a Priest blessing the holy alien-esque union). Now you’re gonna love the next part! Seeing her brand new man, Katy Perry cannot look at him directly and reaches for a pair of “Human Sunglasses Circa 2011” which were nicely wrapped on a pedestal right on the Mount Detritus. She puts her shades on and… surprise?! Say Hello to Product Placement! What does the frame read? Vogue, baby! Those are Vogue Sunglasses (and you won’t believe it, but just like in the above mentioned hologram case, it’s Kate Moss who’s advertising for the Vogue Sunglasses, the 2011 collection! how interesting is that?)! And then she unveils her deer legs and they both walk (clothesless) happy ever after towards the sunrise! And they lived… alienhappy ever alienafter! Riiiight!

Now, after all this visual madness. Inspiring, but mad nevertheless, let’s talk about the words of immense wisdom and creative enlightenment which are actually sung throughout the video! I’ll just insert the chorus, proof enough of the message carried by this beautiful, beautiful pop song:

Umm… what was I saying? I’m sorry, but the epic of this song disrupted my logic in so many ways, I’ll have to ask your opinion right now: am I going too far? Am I seeing things where I shouldn’t? am I imagining moral perils that aren’t really there? (if you’re into the lyrics, please do try and keep your cool while reading them all here).

(for those of you interested in the technical sheet, so to speak, of the song, here are a few key facts from the making of Katy Perry’s E.T. ft Kanye West: this is the fourth single from Katy Perry’s third album, Teenage Dream. Written by Katy Perry (amongst others), the music video, released on March 31, 2011 was directed by Floria Sigismondi and widely acclaimed by both critics and fans. More about the single here.)